Trotzdem genießt die Bilder:

After the pumpy trip – we arrived totally wet, we went down for the first dive. SHINKOKU MARU, 152m. The 10,102 ton Naval Tanker was built in 1940 and was one of eight tankers refueling the ships used for the japanese attack on pearl harbor. In august 1942 a US submarine torpedoed her, but the damage was minor enough for repairs. In july 1943 she was torpedoed again, but was repaired in just five weeks. She met her final match on February 17, 1944 when a Dauntless dive bomber from the USS Yorktown CV10 hit her amidships, and then the next morning she was torpedoed by Grumman Avengers which opened a huge hole into her engine room. At last she went down. To the divesite: It is known as one of Chuuks best dives and a must-do for divers. She was sunk upright with a hole in her aft port side. Her superstructure is just 12m deep and her deck 18m. The deepest point of the ship is at 38m. Through the bomb hole some rooms are accesible, like the engine room, crew quarters, rudder and rudder engine. In the top of the ship you can also dive inside and see the galley with dishes, stove top and utensils. Moreover the bridge with wheelhouse, engine telegraph, sick bay – where daddy was lying in, and operating table – which we haven’t seen of course are also accessible and easily dived. The bow gun and most exposed structures are completely encrusted with colourful corals and sponges. They are also sourrounded by lots of little fish.

After the dive we went snorkeling again. That time we went to HINO MARU No.2 (aka Dai Na Hino Maru, or One Boat Gun), 66m. 998ton Naval Miscellaneous Auxillery Ship. She began her life as a small Transport in 1936, then was converted to a Gunboat in 1942, and finally was made into an Auxiliary Ship in 1943. She showed up in Truk Lagoon after Operation Hailstone, but was sunk in shallow water after numerous strafing attacks that set her afire, and bombings on April 29, 1944. The small Cargo Ship was the unofficial “Symbol of Truk Lagoon” with its photogenic bow gun in just a few meters deep. The location is just offshore west of Uman Island in 1 to 12m deep. The frighter was blown inside out by two bombs midships, so other than the bow little is recognizable.

For the second dive we went to SANKISAN MARU, 113m. The 4,776ton Army Cargo Ship origins are a mistery, although it is said that she was originally called the Red Hook, and was an American vessel doing Northwest trade duringthe depression. Captured by the Japanese in 1942, she arrived in Truk on February 12, 1944. The ship was bombed on both February 17th and 18th, and it appears that the cargo of munitions was either struck by a bomb directly, or reached by a fire. Nevertheless it resulted in a tremendous explosion, fragmenting the entire midship superstructure and flinging the whole stern section into deeper water. The wreck lies in a depht from 15m to 24m. It has some soft corals and other marine growth. The masts are rising toward the surface. In the ship are tons of monition. Daddy and I wanted to take a little “Patrone” with us, but we didn’t dare. There are also lots of carwheels and some “Lenkräder”. For the pictures I acted like I was driving while sitting on a small motor, which had a wheel on each side, and holding a “Lenkrad”.

Then we rested again till 3pm in the rooms. I was writing the entry about the day before and Daddy way sleeping. At three we went to the diveshop. Paul was already awaiting us and “Ferl2″ and the diveguide came shortly after us.

The third dive we did at KIYOSUMI MARU, 87m. The 8,614ton Passenger-Cargo Ship was built in 1934 and providedservice to New York from Kobe, Japan. In 1941 she was converted into an armed oxiliary cruiser, with eight antiaircraftguns and a pair of tornado launchers. US Submarine Balao attacked Kiyosumi Maru with a half dozen torpedoes, three of which nailed her, but she didn’t go down. A sister cruiser Oyoto towed her to Truk Lagoon, where she was being repaired at the time of Operation Hailstone. Douglas dive bombers from USS Yorktown CV10 and USS Enterprise did her in. 43 crewmen died in the attacks. The wreck lies in a depth from 30 to 14m. It lies on its portside. The foreship has been blown up by a torpedo. The bridge and the structure has been bombed. In the torpedo hole, which is huge, are many corals, also black corals, which transformes the sad sight into a beatiful magical area. The engine room is wide open with catwalks and massive engine cylinders, but not easily accessible – we just saw it from the outside. The ship was really huge. I felt a bit sad, thinking about how many people died there and now we are swimming through their grave.

On the boat we met the australian couple again. However, only he is diving. The guides already geared up the tanks and brought our ABC-equipment and wetsuits on the boat. What a luxury. Then we went off to the first dive. The trip was very bumpy and when we arrived we were totally wet.

Our first dive was at Fujikawa Maru, 132m. 6,963 tons passenger cargo ship. It was built in 1938 and served in routes to North and South America as well as India until being taken for war used by the japanese Navy in 1940. September 1943, she was nearly sunk heading from Truk to Kwajalein by a torpedo from the USS permit. But she limped back to Truk lagoon in three days and was later repaird and returned to service in January 1944. The ronovated ship was struck by a torpedo during operation hailstone strike 3e-1 at 1420 hours by aircraft from the USS bunker hill and USS Monterey. She finally went down the next morning. That’s it to the history. So to the divespot. It is a mustdive! Totally amazing wreck!. It’s an exaircraft ferry wich rests upright. The depht is from 34m to 6m. Inside the ship you can still see airplanewings and machine guns. The mast of the ship is nearly reaching the surface. There is also a fighter plane in another room, for which that wreck became so famous. The pilothouse, baths, staterrooms, galley and engine room are also accesible, however we were only in the pilothouse and the engineroom. The bow gun is covered with plenty of colourful corals and sponges.

After that dive we went snorkeling to a little plane-a ZERO (Mitsubishi A6M Carrier Fighter “Reisen”) It lies upside down in a depht of only 6m.

The second dive was at Heian Maru, 155m. 11614 tons passenger cargo ship, It was built in 1930 at the cost of 15 million $. On her maidan voyage she set at transpazific speed record on a trip to seattle with passenger travelling in english style luxury. She was converted into a navy submarine tender in 1941. On the 17th of February 1944 a dive bomber from the USS Yorktown CV10 hit near the bow exploding the uperstructure in a fiery inferno. On the 18th two torpedo bombers from USS Bunker Hill scored near misses, but damaged the ship. The ship was then hit by Avenger torpedo bombers, which caused an explosion, sinking the ship. To the divespot: She lies on her portside. The depht is from 36m to 12m. She gained famous in 1970 when Cousteau showed her off on Tv with her name on the bow still readable in english as well as in japanese. The ship carried supplies for Japanese subs, so the wreck is crowded with sake-bottles. 14 longlance torpedos are found in the fwd hold. It is chuuks largest wreck and there are many corals on it and a shark is likelky to pass by. At least we saw one.

After the second dive we went back to the hotel, were we took an hour break and we headed to the betty bomber for our third dive. Betty – Mitsubishi G4M3 Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber – it’ a tactical bomber from the japanese navy which first took to air in 1939. Mass production started in 1940. Her shape gave her the name flying cigar , but she would also light up when shot because of her unprotected fuel tanks. This aircraft could also carry torpedoes. It appears that this betty was landing at the Eten Island airstrip, but went down just a few hundred meters short, breaking off her nose starboard wingtip, and engines, which were tossed forward nearly 100 meters off the port side. No one knows if she was shot down, or if her demise was a result of the American Operation Hailstone assault of 17.-18.Feb.,1944. We made lots of pictures of it. There were also mnany corals and little fish. Daddy didn’t get tired of taking pictures of them.

Back at the hotel we had the daily routine. Shower -only cold water here, but who cares, dinner – not that good here, but a very lovely grannylike waitress and a drink – gin tonic, which was mixed 50% gin and 505 tonic.

The first dive we did at the canvas. That was very cool. We dived through many caves for nearly 40 minutes. There were different types of lionfish and some filefish. One little brown one with whithe circles. I’m not sure if it really was an filefish, but it was adoreable. Daddy tried to take a picture of it, however, he is not used to the camera of Mümü.

The weather turned a bit while we were on divebreak and the waves got huge. So I geared up in the wather and even while we were diving it was very weavy. We did not do the canvas, but the reef next to them. There was a quite big white tipped reefshark. The camera got grounded to the boat, because it work again.

That night we went to dinner with Regina and Willi, the two from Vienna, because it was our last diveday we had a couple of winebottles till they kicked us out of the restaurant because they wanted to go to bed. Then the four of us just went to the pool, where we had some more bottels. After sunrise the last one, which was me, went to bed…pretty drunk….I had a good talk with Elnore from the reception and despite that I was only drinking water at the end, I had the worst hangover the next day. I coudln’t even eat plain toast. So I left the restaurant and jumped in the nice cold pool and afterwards straight back to bed.

At half past two we booked an island tour. Our guide, who couldn’t really be described as very talkaktiv, drove us around the island. Showed us a community house – used to talk about what they will do that day/week, for celebrations and so on, a men house – which is not allowed of women to enter, it is used for the men to sit there and protect the village. And the boys get taught the knowledge of the elder ones. Men houses are always at the sea, the stonepath – it was used before they got cars. On the path you can reach each village and each community/men house, the WWII leftovers – two small japanese planes and one “Kanone”, and the hill up so we could see the philippine sea at one side of the island and the pacific on the other side.

After three hours he dropped us off at the hotel again. After a little swim at the pool we went to dinner with Regina and Willi again. All three, except me, were already able to drink alcohol again. It kind of astonished me. We had tasty pizzas and than Regina and Willi had to say goodbye. They were heading to the ppr in palau. We left the restaurant as well and went to the room, because we were allowed to stay there till midnight. At midnight we got an wakeup call and I went down, however, nobody really cared if we leave to room or not and so I went back again. The bus. The driver was surprinsingly our guide from the land tour that afternoon and the guide of reginas and willis kayaking in the morning. I think that night all guest from the hotel left.

At the airport we had to open all our bags, but luckily they could check it through till chuuk. Then we went to immigration and after that to the gate, where they checked the hand luggage and we even had to take off our flipflops. And then we were sitting there and nearly each of the persons had bracelts of real flowers or crowns of them. I also got a bracelet at the hotel for farewell.

That night it was pouring with rain and the storm was so strong that the moskitonet fell out of the window and directly on me. The shock of my lifetime. I had such a lively dream and suddenly rummmmms! In the morning I told the recepionist to get someone to fix it and she looked at me with such a pissed expression on her face. I nearly fell sorry that I had to give her work.

That day we were on the diveboat with an Austria couple from Vienna. They told us that they were there already 10 days and that they are counting the minutes when they are going to Palau. Of course, the visibility was bad again. We were just too lucky on the trip till now, somewhen that has to change. So it was again a day without even a plastic manta. The difference was that the “soup” where we were diving in wasn’t green but white as milk. Well, but we saw the octopus again. Maybe they should change the advertising and guarantee for octopusses…. The Austrian couple asked the guides to change the plan and instead of going to the Mi’l Point – the Manta point – agin we went to Vertigo.

Vertigo is a reefdive, where they also do the shark feeding. So we had around 8 riffsharks (grey and whitetip) accompanying us for around 20 minutes. And the visibility, I didn’t even dare to hope that, was good. Actually it was excellent!The reef hase mostly hard corals and unfortunately not really many fish. The guide told me that it is an private reef, where the people do lots of speerfishing and noone can stop them.

The third dive only daddy and I wanted to do, the others singed in or the mandarine dive at 5.30 pm. So we got an break from around half an hour. (The trip home form the last dive took very long, because we had to go the long way around the coast – otherwise the waves would have been to big. And it was raining again.

So We left at around 2.30pm and went to the reef again. The visibility was even better than before. There were lots of huge hard corals and a shark. My stupid mask was fogy again. New equipment really sucks.

After the third dive we went to the room for our daily shower and than to the restaurantboat. We had tuna poke as a starter and it was delicious!

When we arrived at the hotel we were totally overhelmed. There was a long road to the lobby, accompanied by plants on the right and left side, torches as well as many little golden lights in form of candels on a christmas tree. The car stopped directly in front of the lobby, where immediatly for helping hands for the luggage came. After signing the check-in papers and getting the key we went to our room. Garden view, groundfloor, one extra bed. My parents, who were planning to go diving that morning already – by the way it was now something like 5 am or later, started to unpack. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to go diving 3 hours later already, fell into the bed and checked out the tv. I just love american tv-channels. Especially Animax.

In the morning, my parents overslept (of course) and skipped diving for that day, we went to the breakfast buffet. It was huge. They had my favorite dumplings again. Ain’t I a lucky girl? So we stuffed ourselves with tonnes of breakfast. There was so much to try that we had no time for the traditional eggs and so on. After finishing the tasty food (except for the juices – well, my parents liked them. I didn’t. The apple juice was the only drinkable on – only my opinion) we called at fish ‘n’ fins who sent us a ride, so we can sign the papers and so on.

After less than an hour our equipment was in its baskets, the papers were sign and we went back to the hotel, where we went back to bed. For me the tv was waiting and for my parents a good deep sleep. We were even to exhausted to explore the whole hotel, which seemed to be huge.

Dinner was also included in our package, so we went to the Coconut terrace again. Today was american bbq. D_E_L_I_C_I_O_U_S! Richi, the chef – we adore him by the way – offered us a fantastic roast beef medium rare. Of course we had to try ewverthing of the buffet, so you can imagine how stuffed we were when we went out of the restaurant. We graped some towels at the pool and actually wanted to go to bed, but than I changed my mind and went in the sea. I love a good night swim. However, there was low tide, so it wasn’t much swimming. Out of the sea and in the pool. Daddy got to beer and also went in the pool, well I was already out again. So we were drinking beer and sitting, or swimming in the pool and mum was sleeping.

Anyhow, let’s start with my impressions about the capital city of the philippines. Mostly, it’s crowded. Around 19 million people are living there, more than the half of them is poor. They live in houses, which look like they are self-made. For us unliving conditions.

In the heart of the town are heaps of malls and hotels. We stayed, as you know from the entries before, in the shang ri la. I felt like paris hilton. Honeslty. I think that explains the look of th room and the other facilities the best. Unfortunately, they served shark fin soup in one of the restaurants. It’s such a shame. We had our christmas dinner at the redrestaurant. The only bad thing I can think about is that it was freezing! We felt like in a frige and the waiters even offerd scarves. I#m wondering why they don’t turn the air conditioning a bit higher. What is the sense behind giving the guests scarves in the size of plankets? Nevertheless, the food was incredibly. And so much. My stomach and my appetite had a hard and cruel battle. In the end the appetite won, which made my stomach really angry at night, so it didn’t let me sleep.

And now to the girls-heaven: when you left the hotel shopping malls in each direction. The closest one was maybe 10 steps away. We crossed some during the search for tabes for our camera, which was already more broken than working. But the only one where we spent some time was greenbelt. This was huge. You could live in the mall for a week and still don’t know every place. Incredible. There was greenbelt 1-9, I think. The numbers discribed differnent houses. The houses again had maybe 5 levels. And so great shops. Mümü and I felt like in a wonderland. After wandering around for hours, without buying anything….big mistake….huge mistake….we went back to our palast. Daddy totally exhausted, Mum was already home- mean jetlag, and I was still amazed and angry about the sudden wonderland-ending.

The last day in Manila we did a city tour. 60 bucks per person, absolutely too expensive. We learned a bit about the history, esspecially about the national hero, who got executed- unfortunately, I forgot the name already. We spent the time wandering in parks, the museums were all closet. The strange thing was, our guide explained that the tour costs that much, because it includes all the entries, she made a discout of 5 dollar because of ONE museum that was closed, so why did we have to pay for the other ones, of which she also knew that they would be closed? Do you get me? That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

At the end of the trip we went to the red light district, where my father had lived for a couple of days when he was here the first time, 1979. His eyes had the momories-of-the-good-old-time glance when we went to the hobbit house. It’s a nice place with saids-so good live music.When we were there, it was actually closed. However, our luck was that the driver was an expert in negotiating. So, we got beers and coke and daddy a suitable place for his memories.

After finishing the drinks, changing some dollar to pesos and buying a hobbit house t-shirt and, of course, making some pictures, we headed to the airport.

There I got my diving-bracelet for the right food. (Each country, where I was diving- one bracelet) We had some wierd palauan style burger with sweet bread- the taste is indiscribable (place for memories again)

After 4 checkings (bags as well as shoes and body) we were allowed to take a seat at the gate

Anyhow, let’s start with my impressions about the capital city of the philippines. Mostly, it’s crowded. Around 19 million people are living there, more than the half of them is poor. They live in houses, which look like they are self-made. For us unliving conditions.

In the heart of the town are heaps of malls and hotels. We stayed, as you know from the entries before, in the shang ri la. I felt like paris hilton. Honeslty. I think that explains the look of th room and the other facilities the best. Unfortunately, they served shark fin soup in one of the restaurants. It’s such a shame. We had our christmas dinner at the redrestaurant. The only bad thing I can think about is that it was freezing! We felt like in a frige and the waiters even offerd scarves. I#m wondering why they don’t turn the air conditioning a bit higher. What is the sense behind giving the guests scarves in the size of plankets? Nevertheless, the food was incredibly. And so much. My stomach and my appetite had a hard and cruel battle. In the end the appetite won, which made my stomach really angry